This Academy is Doomed
by monkeypoo93
Summary: Peyton is a straight A student and a straightedge,until she falls into the clutches of the Cafe Club,gets romantically involved w/the hottest gay guy in school,becomes besties w/a perv...all that,a toilet and a C on an exam*Spin off Ouran Host Club:
1. Ch1 The meetin that changed everythin

"Are you really planning on applying to that school? Don't you think that's a little out of your league?"

"What? You don't think I can get in?"

"That's not it…"

The waves lapped at the shore, their arms resting on their knees and their eyes watching the sun set on the fiery water.

"Then what?"

"It's just… far away. And more interested in the student's pedigree than talent…"

"Have you even researched it? I have. I'm good enough, I'm already accepted. I may not have the funds, but I have the talent, and they value that more than you know." She was indignant.

"Is there nothing I can say that will make you stay?" he shifted on the wet sand and looked at her profile; her hair was drying in short wisps. He wasn't used to it this short and didn't like it.

"No, there's nothing you can say," she glanced at him sideways and quickly looked away; she didn't like the dejected look on his face.

"Why did you cut it? Why are you bent on changing?" anger snaked its way into his familiar voice.

"I didn't need it; do you know how much hair they use to make wigs? And do you know what people are more likely to buy wigs? The people who don't have hair because they're so sick, it's not by choice. I wanted to help… in any way I could. I'm not changing Scott, not on the inside, you of all people should know that," she put her chin in her hand and continued to gaze at the sunset.

"Look at me Peypey," Scott whispered.

"No," she knew what he wanted and she couldn't give that to him.

"I'll miss you Peyton," he resigned himself to look at the ocean's gentle waves.

"I know, I'll miss you too Scott."

…

"Have you really rented out a _building_ on campus?"

"Yes, it was relatively inexpensive compared to what it probably should've cost, and I took the liberty of installing a coffee bar."

"Terrific! This is going to be a great school year! I can practically taste it!"

"How has the music been coming along?"

"We've mastered the instruments, which wasn't hard, we've been learning for practically our whole lives…"

"But now we have a reason to apply ourselves."

"We've also been picking out background music and themes for the café…"

"And we've picked out the songs we'll be covering for the opening night; I think it will be a big hit."

"So do I and I also think our ability to karaoke each other's voices will add to our identity confusion…"

"Should be fun," their smiles were wicked and their amber eyes shone with mischief.

"Good," he checked something off on his clipboard. "How about the barista issue?"

"Gotcha covered," they winked in unison, perfect mirrors of the other. "We have one in the summer home on the beach and the workers are too slow so we figured it out on our own, we'll have the best coffee on campus made in efficient time."

"Aren't you two being a bit too confident?" he was utterly bored with this business talk.

"Of course not, we have reason to be," they glared, bored with his attitude.

"What about sweets? And food? And cake and stuff? Are the chairs comfy?"

"Don't worry, everything will come together once we get settled into the new arrangement. You'll have full reign in the kitchen, Billy, you can cook whatever you wish," he pushed his glasses up his straight, elegant nose. "And I made sure the doors were tall enough for you Stan, so no need to watch your head this year," his smile was dryly amused.

"Thanks," he seemed indifferent, but nobody questioned the big man's appreciation.

"So when do we get to see it?"

"I've arranged for our rooms to be ready the day before the students arrive. We'll have the day to arrange everything the way we like and for Jason and Damien to get use to the speaker setup and the coffee bar. We have the day to do whatever we want," the dark eyed boy smiled dryly at his friends.

"This school year will be the best yet! I can feel it!"

…

"It's not something I can change mom, I can't help it that I think girls are a waste of time and not attractive. Honestly, I've tried everything," not that he really cared that much to put forth the effort, truthfully, he had given up on ever liking girls a long time ago, and now he just had the guts to admit it.

"Everything? By everything, do you really mean 'everything'," it hadn't helped that his mom was the type to freak out about every little thing. He knew this would be hard for her to accept and that there was a possibility that she wouldn't be able to, but he had to tell her anyway.

"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking mom then: No, I have not had sex," really he had never even gotten close to that point.

"Oh thank God," his mother slumped into the couch cushion and brought her hand to her young face.

"Mom, that's one thing that I would never do to you, I know how you feel about it," he stood from the hammock he'd been lounging in and stood in front of his mother, hands on hips. "Besides, it's just a phase right? The only reason I am being this way is because girls just plain stress me out… and they're way too caught up in their image, they're just not my style," he smiled, his mouth a perfect shape, his eyes bright with eye-pigment, he was always changing his own appearance.

"I hope you're right," his mother spoke now with a hint of defeat in her voice. "Just don't get in too much trouble at that school, we're lucky you're grandparents are so generous or who knows where you'd be without your cosmetics and average intelligence. I'll get supper ready," and she left the room.

Rafe breathed a sigh of relief and fell onto the couch, it had gone better than he had expected. Now if he could only convince his mom and his grandparents that a normal education was more than adequate for his interests, but he knew their reactions wouldn't be anywhere near understanding.

…

One, two, three, four, five… six, seven, eight, nine… ten perfect serves soared over the net. It was what he cared about, the game, the sand, the sweat, the fun. But to heck if anyone ever noticed in this place, he was eternally ignored in his own home. They didn't have enough time or care for a son, which did nothing to explain why they had had one. He supposed it was a mistake.

But what did he care? He lived for school and getting the girls and this game, and that was it.

…

The meeting that changed everything…

Big, fat, ferocious drops fell from the darkened sky, the 5k had taken longer than Peyton had intended, stopping by the stables had probably clocked on some time. Lightening flashed and thunder roared from the imposing clouds, making Peyton flinch, but only slightly, the rustling sound of a maple tree made her subconsciously pick up the speed. The school's 'downtown' was just a bit farther up the path; she knew she was close when she felt the pavement beneath her worn out sneakers.

She couldn't see much, due to the outrageous amount of rain, but she did see a light in the distance and as she got closer she recognized it as the café many of her classmates were so excited about. It seemed like any old coffee shop, and she had a hard time figuring out why a brand new café was already so popular, it's not like it had been publically commercialized or anything. Without much thought on whether or not the shop was open, she raced to the door and pulled, a little bell hung on the inner handle jingled cheerily, and just as the wind picked up, Peyton flung the door shut. She stood dripping on a door mat in her boys running shorts and oversized t-shirt that did little for the eyes other than make her true gender indistinguishable.

The shop was nice, overly stuffed couches were arranged around a small coffee table, with a matching loveseat and two beanbags. Modern chairs and tables were placed in a scattered but pleasing arrangement around the open room; the lights were also a modern style and were accented with differing shades of bulbs, but right now the coloring in the room was normal. The floor was concrete, stained and bright, looking and smelling new and clean, the walls were a plain off-white cream shade. At the back of the room was a drop-down, carpeted in black and containing multiple guitars of both electric and acoustic varieties, a couple basses, a set of drums, a keyboard piano and two mikes, speakers were set on either side of the drop down and at the very back of it was the mixing console. Something from Boyslikegirls was playing lightly from the big speakers, and nothing but a mop and bucket were present in the main room.

The lingering smell of coffee clung to the walls and furniture, giving the room a warm, welcoming feeling. Peyton was just about to call out to see if anyone was here, but she never got around to it.

"I knew I heard something, I told you Damien," he was about a foot and half of another taller than Peyton, and from the looks of him, stronger, his eyes were a strange amber color, dark near the outer edge of the iris and a fierce yellow close to the pupil, his nose was small and sharp, his jaw naturally tense and defiant in shape, his bronze hair came to his earlobes and nape of his neck, wispy curls forming at their ends, his skin was tanned and his muscles toned, Peyton couldn't quite wrap her head around how attractive he was, so she stood dumb at the door.

"What's wrong with him? What's with the deer-in-headlights look? What'd you do to him, Jason?" a mirror image of the fallen god standing just inside the kitchen door stepped into Peyton's view. For a split second she wondered if it was possible that she had stepped into an alternate world where all the men were the fallen gods of every girl's fantasy.

"I haven't done anything," the first one, who she guessed was named Jason, replied to the other, who must be Damien.

"Yet," Damien grinned at Jason who returned the wicked grin and adjusted his position, leaning on one side of the door frame, every part of his body a sensual suggestion. Peyton felt the hot rush of an intense blush race to her ears and face. Damien strode toward Peyton, his grin still wicked but his eyes sultry, almost vulgar, how could he possibly emit so much from those fierce eyes? "Didn't you know that coming in afterhours is dangerous? Even for an athlete such as yourself, it's a bit bold," he put his hand on the door behind Peyton, the bell tinkled lightly.

"Did you hear that?" Peyton hadn't seen Jason move until he was not two paces to her left side, leaning leisurely against the wall, one elegant finger posed on a light switch. The lights dimmed and a red tint emitted from the ceiling. "That was the sound of _no escape_, you're ours," he whispered the last two words into her ear. Both pairs of fierce eyes stared at her, orange in the lighting.

Peyton was about to scream, but never quite got around to it.

"What are you two doing now?" the lights lit the room again.

"Oh come on Kyle," she wasn't quite sure which one had said that, she had lost track of who was who when her eyes had snapped to her savior.

"We just wanted to scare him a little, just one scream you know?"

"Yeah, harmless fun," they harmonized while speaking; Peyton figured they were whack jobs, so much for fallen gods.

"I apologize for their inappropriate behavior toward you Peyton Eerie," there was an almost vampiric aura about him, his eyes were black, emotionless abysses, his hair black as well, his nose was straight, his jaw and chin sharp, and his skin pale. He wore a sophisticated pair of wire rimmed glasses and dark clothes, he carried a notebook in one arm and a jacket slung over his shoulder. He was tall and thin, but still muscled and had an athletic air about his sure movements. He was attractive, but in an intimidating way. "I see you came in here to escape the rain, please feel free to use our restroom if you'd like to dry off, there's a hand dryer that should help with your damp clothes. It's right over there if you wish to use it," he motioned to the door next to the kitchen door, and, as if he thought he had been more than efficiently hospitable, he sat in the loveseat and opened his notebook, pulling a pen from behind his ear as he did so.

Peyton quickly walked to the restroom, feeling the twin demons trialing her at a slight distance.

"If you need any help, just let us know," they said as the door closed in their beautiful faces. Peyton leaned up against the door, having a hard time understanding why she hadn't left this weird world yet.

As soon as the door had shut, the twins turned and eyed Kyle fiercely. "So, remind us, why did you ruin our fun?"

Kyle sighed, annoyed, "Because, that student you harassed happens to be the new sophomore with a full ride scholarship. I will not tolerate you two bullying the top student in this school. Not to mention the fact that Peyton Eerie is the only student unable to afford tuition, it wouldn't be good for the school's image if that got around."

"You mean he's poor?" the twins looked at each other in shock.

"Who's poor?" Danny entered the main room, all smiles and cheer.

"The guy in the bathroom," the twins grabbed the bucket and mop, all interest lost, Danny was a pro at ruining their mood at times.

"Oh! The poor boy is here? We must make him feel welcome! Give him anything, everything he wants!" Danny, ever the dramatic one.

"Don't be ridiculous Danny, things cost money, Peyton will pay like any other person," Kyle continued scribbling in his notebook.

"Ah, so the poor boy has a name! Peyton… weren't you telling me about this boy during the summer?"

Peyton could hear voices on the other side of the restroom door, but couldn't make out what they were saying due to the roaring hand dryer. Her shirt was nearly dry and she had already dried the shorts, but really, she didn't know why she was drying them anyway, she would have to go back out in the rain soon enough. She pulled the oversized shirt over her head and looked in the mirror. It was true then, she did resemble a boy somehow, but her face didn't seem so manly to her.

The restroom door swung open, and immediately, Danny was standing before Peyton, his face shining bright with a smile so radiant she thought she was staring at the sun and nearly shielded her eyes, but realized that would probably be rude.

"Welcome to the café!" he might as well have been standing in a spot light with the way he acted. His lean muscled arms flung wide, absorbing the attention, his head thrown back allowing his luscious blonde hair to fall in messy, lazy curls over the nape of his neck, his eyes were bright with cheer and blue as the ocean waves in a storm, everything about him seemed so welcoming, but from the shape of his nose, he somehow resembled a dragon, a very tall one. Maybe, a tamed dragon, Peyton thought, she could feel the runner's high winding down, leaving her tired on her feet and a bit loopy.

"Your name is Peyton right? And this is your first year at the academy isn't it? Well welcome! We're so happy you're here! And we're even happier that you decided to visit our café, we certainly weren't expecting you," his smile was disarming and so full of true happiness Peyton almost lost her balance, how could he be so happy to meet her? "You certainly are a lot cuter than I thought a poor boy would be," he put one hand on his hip, the other on his chin, looking thoughtful. "Ah well, long live the poor!"

Peyton was beginning to think that this guy was a whack job too, were any of these amazing looking dudes normal in any way at all? "Uh… thank you?"

"You're quite welcome, honored guest. Please, you must be thirsty, you look as if you ran a mile or something, you must be exhausted, what would you prefer to drink?" the tall blonde went to lean against the counter, apparently unaware that the beverages were stored on the other side, or in the kitchen.

"Oh, I'm fine, I don't need anything," Peyton stood awkwardly in the doorway to the restroom, not sure if she wanted to make a run for it or lock herself away until they finally were forced to leave due to curfew.

"Hey Kyle! There are leftover cookies, can I take some back to my room please?" a boy quite a bit shorter than Peyton walked out of the kitchen, how many of them were there? Aside from being short, he was very cute, he had strawberry blond hair that was messy in a fashionable way, and huge dark brown eyes that sparkled when he smiled in Peyton's direction, and his build was also athletic. Not two steps behind the small boy came a giant, towering over all of the others, his arms bulged but somehow weren't overly muscular as to look grotesque, his height and muscular physic balanced out, his eyes were lazy chocolate, somehow in a face so strong those eyes gave him a less intimidating presence, a friendly giant. Why were all these athletes manning a café?

"Sure Billy, take all of them, day-old cookies don't sell well anyway," Kyle said, he sounded irritated.

"Would you like a cookie?" who could refuse that wide eyed face?

"Sure," Peyton walked over to the short boy and took one of his offered cookies.

"I made them myself! What do you think?" the boy asked.

"They're delicious," Peyton smiled for the first time in front of these fallen whack jobs of gods, and it nearly blew them away. Well most of them, namely the twins, the tall blonde and little one, the other two found it either sellable or sweet.

And pounce: "You know, you should really get out more Peyton, with your charming looks and sensational smile you would win the hearts of thousands! Possibly even mine, if I were that type, you know..." Danny approached abruptly, forgetting that he had ever offered Peyton a drink.

"He is that type actually, the question is: is he YOUR type?"

"Or rather: are WE your type?" they slinked up to either side of Peyton like two prowling cats, in sync in order to hypnotize their prey.

Peyton began giving ground; intimidated by these displays of… what was it exactly? All of them seemed intent on capturing her, but for what purpose?

"You have to come visit us sometime, Peypey! I'll bake you more cookies since you like them so much! We can be best friends!" Billy bounded right up to Peyton and jumped up and down so he could get a better look into those deep blue eyes.

That did it. Peyton tumbled into the drop down and smashed an acoustic, no grace about it. The four who had been unintentionally pushing her back immediately crowded around her asking how she was and if she was ok and all those things that normal people say. When she was lifted up onto her feet, the twins acknowledged the smashed instrument.

"Damn…" said one, rubbing the back of his neck.

"That blows…" said the other, shoving his hands into his pockets.

They just stared at it for a moment, in silence, mourning their loss.

"I'm sorry, I'll pay whatever it costs," Peyton looked at her shoes.

The twins looked at each other doubtfully.

"That guitar alone costs close to four thousand, add in the cookie and you're probably past that…" Kyle spoke from his chair. "And since you're already low on funds, we'll be generous."

"Yes… very generous," the twins said, looking at Kyle, wondering what was coming.

"From today on I'm afraid we'll be needing your services, Jason and Damien will teach you how to properly make coffee and you will be at Billy's disposal if he ever needs any help. Also, we are lacking a janitor," the smugness of Kyle's smile was unmistakable; he was enjoying this far too much.

Peyton's plans for this school year just hit a major bump. Nothing seemed to be going as planned.


	2. Ch2 Pounce

2. Pounce:

The first day of actual classes passed smoothly with plenty of note taking and little class chatter. Peyton discovered that she had seen the Café twins before; they were in her grade and in her home room, in class B Sophomores. Originally she was supposed to go to the Café for lessons on how to use the coffee-making-machinery, but she caught the twins and told them that she had a volleyball practice scheduled right after classes, so now she was out in the hot sun heading for the sand volleyball pits wishing she had thought to purchase some sunscreen lotion.

There were two girls at the sand pit already, they were chatting and stretching and Peyton hoped they were on her team; she had heard that there were two teams at the academy and didn't know if they met at the same time or if they were big on completing with each other.

"Hey," Peyton spoke as she approached, and got a nasty look from one girl who gave her a once over and a curious yet shy glance from the other. "Are you with team Cobra?" she asked and shielded her eyes from the sun to get a better look at the two.

"Yeah, you the newbie?" said the one who had looked at her nastily and was wearing the shortest shorts she had ever seen. "Coming in as a sophomore right?" she straightened and shielded her own eyes to better look at the new guy.

"Yeah, I hear I got really lucky," Peyton smiled and proffered her hand. "I'm Peyton."

"Maggie," she shook Peyton's hand then gestured at the other girl. "This is Tessa, she's a sophomore too, and I'm a junior."

"Really? What class are you in?" Peyton asked, wondering if she had somehow overlooked a face.

"Class C," Tessa spoke softly as she shook Peyton's hand.

"Well," Maggie cut in before Peyton could comment. "I'm glad to see that we have at least one guy with manners on this team now…" she kept talking, but Peyton was caught on something she had said, was everyone at this school gender confused? Or was it just Peyton?

Peyton was quite certain it wasn't her who was confused, the last she had checked, which would've been not too long ago when she had changed out of her nicest clothes into this comfortable athletic wear, she was in fact a girl. It had to be everyone else. But, it didn't really matter, did it? Let them think what they want, plus, being a guy on the team sounded like it could have some advantages, guys always considered girls inferior when it came to sports, this way she could have a fair trial. She started stretching with Tessa and Maggie, talking about their first experiences with their teachers and Maggie giving advice about the classes she had gone through.

It was hot, just stretching was causing Peyton to sweat, so eventually she gave it up and just sat down taking her water bottle out of her backpack, she had had to lug all the way out here, and guzzling a good amount of it. She looked around and noticed that not far off were the soccer fields and she spotted a bronze-haired head with a red bandana that looked familiar. So the café _was_ full of athletes, the twins were soccer players, and that made her wonder again what they were doing working in that dinky café.

"Hey, Maggie," Peyton asked from her spot on the grass.

"Yeah?" Maggie replied from where she was laying, her shirt pulled up so she could tan her tummy.

"You seem to know a lot about campus and stuff, do you happen to know anything about the café in the campus's downtown area?" Peyton squinted over at Maggie who was considering her question with puckered lips.

"The one that all those really hot guys work at?" she asked and Peyton nodded. "Yeah, all I know about it is that some of the most popular, wealthiest boys own it, run it and work it. They do a lot of fun stuff and almost all of the girls have been there at least once or twice if not hundreds of times. Oh, and Kyle, he's the son of headmaster of this school, so he can get away with a lot, if you know what I mean," she winked at Peyton. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I've sort of been hired, I guess, but I don't know anything about them, or the café, so I was just wondering," she started picking at the grass.

"Hired?" Tessa asked, curious.

"Well, it's a work study sort of thing, to help pay for my tuition," her first outright lie, unless you call her not informing anyone she had met of her true gender a lie.

She was saved from the awkward silence that was sure to follow by the braying laughter of an oncoming group of volleyball guys. There were four of them, one bulging, another not much smaller, one really thin guy and one that looked almost normal by athlete standards. None of them were wow-factors in the looks department, at least, that's what she though from this distance with the sun nearly blinding her, however, on closer observation she found she was wrong.

The big one, had a kind face, and was in no way unattractive, but also was in no way able to compare to the gods of the café, the one that was a bit smaller, but not by much, looked a bit fiercer, but that was offset by his goofy grin that he couldn't seem to wipe off his face, and still could not compare to those gods, and the thin one reminded Peyton of a turtle somehow, she supposed it was his thin neck and Adam's Apple's fault. Then there was the well-built, but not huge, guy, and she couldn't believe he could compare.

His eyes were dark chocolate, piercing and had a bitter-sweet look about them; his hair was a common medium brown, but when the sun hit it just right the fire in it was revealed. His features were strong; he had a strong jaw and a Greek nose, big hands and bulging calves, a smile that scrunched up his eyes and revealed one dimple on his right cheek. "So, this is the new kid? Dude, I thought you were getting us someone who would actually make a difference," and had a sharp tongue, obviously.

"Shut up Seb," this came from Maggie who had stood up and was now adjusting her shirt. "Coach Grierson wouldn't have allowed us to take on anyone but the best… which is why I question exactly why you're on the team," the last bit was a bit quieter.

Seb smirked, maybe he also had an attitude problem, "You wouldn't be questioning anything about me Mags, if I hadn't said no to sleeping with your slutty ass," Maggie turned red, and the guys laughed outright.

"Ok, ok, everyone shut up and listen to me," this came from the second-to-biggest one. "Alright, introductions, I'm Tim, the captain and head of this teams activities," he then pointed at the biggest one. "That's Mike, our strong-side hitter, he can't play back row for shit," everyone gave a chuckle, then Tim pointed at the scrawny one. "That's Drew, our back row expert and the crappiest designated setter I've ever seen," again there were chuckles, and Drew turned a bit pink, then Tim pointed at Seb. "That's Sebastian, our jack of all traits and most aggressive player," Tessa squeaked and covered her mouth as she laughed at the obvious pun, then Tim gestured at the girls. "And I'm sure you've already met Maggie and Tessa, our lebaras and back row girls, and everyone, this is Peyton, our new setter right?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I can be setter, but I can be anywhere," she spoke, hoping she didn't sound cocky.

"Oh," this came from Sebastian. "A bit conceited, aren't we," he eyed Peyton smugly.

"No, Seb, that's you," Maggie spoke as she took the sack of balls from Tim and took one out.

"Shut up Maggie, everyone knows you're just bitter," he spoke harshly as he too took out a ball.

"Enough, kids, lets serve!" Tim said as he ran out into the sand to the other side of the court and got down and ready.

Figuring that hanging out on the side with this Sebastian person and Maggie would be hazardous Peyton raced to the other side and took the spot of setter. Mike wasn't far behind Peyton, then a volley of serves from the other four rained down on them, they would bump the served balls back over the net to the other side so the servers could have another go. After each of the four had had ten goes at it Tim stood up from the ready.

"How many out of ten?" he called.

"Ten!" Seb shouted back, smiling broadly.

"Seven," Drew's head hung low.

"Crap, Drew, I thought I told you to practice over the summer!" Tim yelled.

"I did!" Drew yelled back, but anyone could see him mumbling something else, and then Seb burst out laughing.

"Eight!" Tessa waved, smiling.

"Good work!" Tim shouted.

"Same here," Maggie called and then tossed her ball to Mike.

"Alright, Peyton, let's see what you're made of," Tim smiled at her and the three of them lined up for the serves. "Oh!" Tim shouted again. "Remember your numbers! I have to write them down to report!" that made Drew slump a little bit more. "So Peyton, jump or grounded?" Tim asked.

"I can do either," Peyton said after a moment's pause.

"Where have you been all my life?" Mike asked, and then grunted as he served.

"Ok," Tim thought for a moment. "We'll do five grounded and five jump, sound good to you guys?"

"Yep," both Mike and Peyton replied.

Peyton took aim, aiming right at Seb who at the moment wasn't paying attention but saying something that was making Maggie's face go red and Tessa's eyes go wide, the ball barely missed the top of the net and WHAM!

"Damn!" Mike laughed. "Nice head shot!"

"Ok! Who the hell did that?" Seb yelled with his hand on his cheek.

"I don't know," Tim said. "Weren't you paying attention?"

"Damn you Tim!" Seb shook his fist comically at Tim, and then got in the ready.

Peyton aimed for the back left corner and hit the mark squarely, causing Tessa to dive and still miss the ball. Five serves without mistakes for the three servers. The jump serves would be more difficult, but Peyton wasn't too worried, after all, this was her first time with this team, if she missed one it wouldn't be that big of a deal. She took aim at Seb, threw the ball high and took three steps, down, and spring and hit. Seb got it, but he looked angry, and Peyton figured he had finally realized that the person to hit him in the face was her. She aimed at Seb for the rest of her serves.

"Damn," Tim said. "We have a new designated server!" he called.

"What?" Seb looked shocked.

"Woo! Way to go Peyton!" Maggie cheered, and Tessa clapped.

"Ok, so tell me the numbers again so I can start the stupid chart," Tim said, and everyone called off their numbers. "What do you say we do hitting next? I need to chart that and blocking too before the week is out," everyone agreed that that sounded good.

"Can I stretch before this?" Peyton asked, feeling the tightness in her shoulders that she was all too familiar with.

"Sure, everyone else grab a ball!" And the team hit the sand again.

Peyton began stretching, not noticing that she still had company. "So," she turned and saw Sebastian standing not too far from her. "Where the hell did you come from?" he asked, no humor about it.

"What do you mean?" Peyton asked, wincing involuntarily.

"Is your family powerful or influential or something?" something in his face changed, but not by much.

"No," Peyton laughed. "Not by a long shot."

"Then what?"

"What, what?"

"Who the heck are you and how did you get on my team? You're a sophomore right? How did you get in this school anyway?" he was scowling.

"I'm one of those people who got really lucky, I'm Peyton Eerie," she held out her hand, her lips pressed together in a thin line, wishing this teammate wasn't such an angry person.

He looked at her hand, then back at her face, then back at her hand. And then he did something Peyton really hadn't expected, neither had he. He was a pretty impulsive person sometimes and never really considered the consequences until they were inevitable. His parents thought he was a problem child that was just attention hungry, which they didn't understand was their fault, which is why they had sent him to this prestigious school. They had thought – and Sebastian knew this from the time he had accidently broken a window and had walked in on their conversation without them noticing, intending to tell them what he had done, but hadn't made it past the doorway – that sending him to this school would, obviously, rid them of his presence, and not only look good for their social standing but might also teach Sebastian to be less of a troublemaker. Seb was going to make sure that didn't happen.

So, he tackled Peyton, knocking the breath momentarily from her lungs, but once he had done that, all fight left him, which wasn't like him. Peyton, with little trouble, untangled herself from him, and they both sat on the ground, Seb looking a bit dazed and Peyton looking murderous. He looked over at Peyton, an embarrassed blush tingeing his cheeks, and Peyton looked at him, her dark blue eyes squinted in anger.

"Look," Seb started. "I didn't actually mean to tackle you."

"Yeah, you have anger management issues don't you," she spoke bluntly, not caring if she made him mad again.

"Yeah, and you have shoulder problems don't you," he returned, his mind racing a bit.

"Yeah, and falling on them doesn't actually help any," she said snidely.

"Yeah, yeah well…" he paused. "You serve like a girl," just to see what response he would get, and was surprised to see Peyton get angry at those childish words.

"I do not!" she threw herself at Seb, pounding her fists into his chest, knowing it probably wouldn't hurt him, and wondering what exactly had possessed her to do such a thing.

"Yeah, yeah! You do! And you punch like one too!" he positioned his foot on Peyton's gut and kicked her up and over his head.

Peyton flipped and landed on her back, and couldn't suppress her laughter after that.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Tim bellowed. "Get your butts over here and hit some ball!"

"Come on," Seb offered Peyton his hand, and she took it, but also hooked a foot behind his ankle. She pulled at his arm at an odd angle and kicked his foot out from under him. She looked over at him and smiled triumphantly.

"You know Peyton," he said, a grin slowly finding its way across his lips. "You're alright."

"Yeah, I know," and they got up and joined their teammates.

…

She ran her fingers through her wet hair again and stared at the sheet of paper with the list of workouts to do for the remainder of the week. They would all be butt-kickers and she sighed before finally tossing it on her bed and then covering her head with the towel and vigorously trying to dry her hair. Next she had to decide what to wear and fast, she had noticed that the soccer team had gone their separate ways long before her team had finished up and predicted that the twins would be waiting for her. She certainly wasn't in any hurry to hang out with them, they had nearly scared the pee out of her the night before, but Kyle didn't seem like the type who would let tardiness fly. She decided on a navy t-shirt and a pair of baggy jeans, not sure if they were girl or guy jeans, but figured with the way things were going it didn't matter, and looking at herself in the full-length mirror on her closet door she sighed again, she really did look like a guy.

Having next to no curves and boobs the size 'nonexistent', she couldn't deny it, she looked like a guy. She ran her fingers through her hair again, managing to stand most of it on end. Why had she decided on this haircut again? _Oh yeah, _she snidely thought to herself, _I am currently going through my rebel slash punk stage, aren't I? I might as well play it up. _She went to her dresser and opened the top drawer, where she kept a bunch of random, cheap accessories that she had somehow convinced herself that she needed.

She buckled on her studded belt, that was floppy and worn and missing a dozen or so studs, went to the mirror and poked the only hoop earring she owned through her cartilage, and tied a white bandana on her head, fixing her hair around it so it looked messy, knowing that when it dried it would be soft and wispy, and tied on her red, falling-apart, Chuck Taylors. _I make a rather attractive boy, if I do say so myself._ And she laughed at herself then left, heading for the café, a bit more confident.

The bell jingled as she entered, and the café was already crowded. The couches were taken over by giggling girls surrounding a smiling Billy and a frowning, pensive appearing giant. Kyle was currently occupied showing what looked like a scrapbook of pictures to a group of beaming girls. Danny was standing near a cluster of girls occupying the multicolored beanbags, apparently explaining something that required much movement of the arms. Then Peyton spotted the twins, behind the counter, one laughing at something one of the two girls ordering had said and the other busy at the coffee machinery.

Peyton took another glance around and wondered what kind of café this place really was, and what exactly had she agreed to, and as she did this, things started to quiet down. Until, finally, there was complete silence and Peyton became very aware of a hot blush racing up her neck. Another question popped up in her mind, why were the customers only girls?

"Ah," one of the twins broke the thickening quietness, a smirk on his mouth.

"Looks like our trainee finally decided to show up," said the other and leaned on the counter, eyes glinting with mischief.

"Get over here, it's about time we got started," said the first as the girls started whispering things to each other, and as Peyton started to head over to the counter she could hear Kyle explaining some things about her presence.

"Hey Jason," the twin leaning on the counter spoke, nodding his head in Peyton's direction, "I told you I liked him," giving Peyton a once over, making the girls gasp and put their hands over their mouths, as if they had seen something very surprising.

"Damien," Jason put the two cups of coffee on the counter and picked up the whipped cream bottle. "Don't try to make me jealous," he said while shaking the bottle and gripping his brother's shoulder, turning Damien so that he was now leaning backward on the counter, facing his fierce looking brother. "You know it just makes me…" his hand walked up his brother's torso and neck to Damien's lips, which he gently traced for a moment then he abruptly hooked his finger into his brother's mouth, prying it gently open. "Play naughty," and he stopped shaking the bottle and squirted some into Damien's mouth, making the two girls squeal and swoon a bit. "Whipped cream?" he then offered to the still partially swooning girls.

"Yes please!" they both squeaked and Jason smugly obliged.

After the two girls had left, the twins turned to Peyton who was still staring at them, one eye twitching, stunned. Damien licked his lips, but missed a stray glob of cream so Jason thumbed it then proceeded to lick his thumb.

"You need to work on your aim," Damien mused.

"Well, it was the first time to perform that one, we'll get it down," Jason returned.

"I get to squirt next time," Damien said, putting an arm around Jason's shoulders.

"So," Jason crossed his arms and looked Peyton up and down as she shook her head, trying to clear it of the incestuous images it was coming up with.

"Yes," Damien replied. "I'm Jason," he said, holding out it his hand and Peyton took it, looking confused.

"Damien," Jason didn't offer his hand, just nodded at Peyton, who nodded back, still appearing confused. "Let's get down to business."

So the twins began teaching Peyton the basics of making the café's coffees, lattes, cappuccinos, mochas, espressos, chai teas and various other drinks. Lucky for them, Peyton was a fast learner, making minimal mistakes. The twins would never admit it, but they were rather impressed with their pupil's progress, it had taken them days to master the machines in their summer home, but of course, they hadn't had help.

While Peyton was busy frothing up a latte, Damien pulled Jason off to the side and started acting like he was searching for a certain flavoring, Jason followed his example immediately. "What do you think?" Damien asked.

"I like his cartilage piercing," Jason smiled.

"He seems nice," Damien observed.

"Yeah, he should be fun," Jason grinned, and Damien grinned in return.

"Pounce?" Damien asked, grinning even wider as Jason nodded.

The twins approached Peyton, sneakily, Jason on the left side and Damien taking the right. Damien slinked his arm around Peyton's shoulders, and Jason did the same, his arm resting gently on his brother's, then they both leaned in toward Peyton in unison, breathing on her ears. She shivered and was unable to suppress a squeaky sound that her throat was able to produce on only rare occasions such as this. The twins grinned and Jason playfully licked Peyton's earring, which was what brought the tragic end to the latte Peyton was now holding.

"Now you've done it," Damien whined, placing his hand strategically over his mouth so that Peyton wouldn't see his satisfied smirk.

"It wasn't my fault! He licked me!" Peyton yelled wildly, and the twins could just imagine what he'd look like as a cat in this moment, with the hair on its back raised and its tail ramrod in the air behind it in the same situation.

"Well it's your fault you dropped the latte," Jason spoke with his arms crossed, appearing bored, but he was anything but. The twins loved nothing better than stirring up trouble.

"It is so your fault! You nearly scared the pee out of me!" Peyton squeezed her eyes shut in agitation.

"Nice choice of words," Damien smirked openly now.

The three of them kept tossing the blame around, none of them noticing that they were drawing quite a crowd around the counter. The twins were having far too much fun with there clearly 'touchy' pupil, teasing and playing like two yellow-eyed devils. As for Peyton, she was obviously riled up and wasn't about to calm down. Which is where Danny stepped into the equation, intending to rid the three of the tension and set everything back to rights, but Danny wasn't always good at making bad situations better, making them worse was his forte, which he was inclined to forget.

Danny strolled leisurely to the other side of the counter, then stopped, placing his hands on his hips and stared at the three troublemakers.

"What is going on here!" Danny spoke as he indicated the three boys with an outstretched hand.

"Peyton spilled a latte," the twins spoke in unison, pointing at the wet floor.

"It's their fault, they were being creepy perverts!" Peyton whined, not knowing just how much the twins enjoyed hearing their squirt of a pupil loose it.

"Oh!" Danny quickly took this opportunity to play savior and hugged Peyton about the shoulders pulling the 'poor boy' close. "Darling boy," he spoke soothingly to Peyton, very aware of his fan-girls nearly drooling over the spectacle he was creating. "You may depend on me! Though no one else believes me, I've always known that those two were trouble!" he glared at the twins, who only looked at each other and shrugged.

"Oh come on Boss, we were just beginning the initiation process," Damien spoke, and when everyone looked sufficiently confused, except for Kyle who appeared more than sufficiently bored with the whole ordeal, Damien winked at Jason who returned it with an added smirk.

"Initiation? Process?" Danny asked, more than a bit curious and the twins new they could have their way.

"Yeah Boss, every new member has to pass the test," Jason spoke matter-of-factly.

"I don't remember any test?" Danny said, letting Peyton free of the hug.

"Well, none of us had to take it 'cause we all were the founding members of the café, so there was no point in us taking a test that we made, you know," Damien explained.

"I guess that does make sense," Danny agreed, appearing to be deep in thought. "But I don't remember making a test either…"

Kyle was happy to supply the reason for Danny's 'forgetfulness', "Well, Danny, that's because there was no officially written test. We assumed that there would never be any other members in our café, but Damien and Jason did decide that if there ever was a new member that he'd have to pass an initiation test, which, I'm assuming, they're making up on the spot," Kyle seemed to think that he had adequately provided the whole of the café with enough information so he returned to his lonely chair and opened his laptop and began typing.

"Well," Danny thought a moment, and nobody seemed to notice Peyton backing away toward the doorway of the kitchen. "I don't think you two should get to decide everything about this initiation test," then his blue eyes seemed to light up. "Every café club member will decide one thing for Peyton to do or answer! That way it's fair and fun for everyone! The café members can discuss ideas with their guests! BEGIN!" Danny called out; throwing his arms in the air, then looked around. Peyton was nowhere to be found. "W-where's Peyton?" Danny asked no one in particular.

At the moment Peyton was hiding in one of the cabinets in the kitchen, the cabinet under the leaky sink, hoping that they'd give up on her and close the café so she could get back to her dorm and breathe easy. That didn't seem to be the way things would go, however.

"I think I saw him sneaking into the kitchen," Peyton moaned when the girl's voice reached her ears.

"Alright men! The first to find the little guy gets to pose the first act on the test!" Danny proclaimed and there was a raucous as the twins and Danny tried to fit through the kitchen door all at once.

Peyton held her breath and covered her eyes with her hands as a figure blocked the light coming in through the crack in the cabinet. "Where can a guy hide in a kitchen?" it was Damien.

"Where would I hide in a kitchen?" asked Jason, and the squeaky sound of the oven door opening reached Peyton's ears and nearly made her laugh.

"You idiot, what if someone turned that on," Damien spoke to his brother.

"Hmm… in here?" Danny asked of no one as he opened the ice-maker, which also nearly made Peyton loose her cool.

"Oh come on you guys, be reasonable," Damien opened the pantry, then a whole wall of cabinets. Then Peyton sneezed and the three pairs of feet scrambled to her hiding place. They fought to open the cabinet and when they finally did, Peyton wasted no time sitting there, she sprung out and sent all four of them tumbling backward.

"I found him!" Danny yelled, grabbing one of her arms.

"No! that cabinet was the last one I had to open!" Damien yelled as he grabbed her other arm.

"Forget it! I beat you to it Damien, I was the one who opened it!" Jason yelled as he wrapped his arms around Peyton's waist.

They all began tugging in different directions, and the strain put on her shoulders nearly made her cry, but instead she screamed: "Someone _help_ me!" and a big giant came rushing through the kitchen door, his eyes fierce dark orbs of molten rock and his nostrils flaring like a racing horse. He assessed the situation for less than a moment then entered the fray and snatched Peyton away from the easily broken grips. He held her in a bear hug, looking down into her face, she was blushing furiously, and his breathing had calmed and something softened in his dark chocolate eyes as he looked down into her sapphire blue ones.

"Uh…" this came from the mass of tangled forms on the kitchen floor. "You can put him down now Stanley," Danny stood up, something like protectiveness adorning his features, which made next to no sense to Peyton.

"Tommy will put Peyton down when the three of you calm down," this came from Billy, who all had failed to notice until that moment. The short and fierce boy stood with his legs apart and his fists on his hips, behind him, staring in through the doorway, were all the girls, their eyes wide and faces full of admiration.

"Ah come on," this came from the twins who were still on the floor tangled together, making no move to right themselves. "We're calm now," they spoke together, their eyes like that of two sleepy kittens.

"Tommy," Billy spoke to his giant. "Let's bring Peypey out to our couch, he looks like he needs some rest after what those three put him through," Billy spoke with more authority than Peyton thought was possible of someone with his boyish features.

"Yeah," the giant replied curtly and followed Billy out of the kitchen, still holding Peyton firmly yet gently against himself.

"Come on girls," Billy spoke to the adoring girls, parting so that Billy and his giant could get to their couch. "I think our Peypey needs some comfort, look how scared he is!" Billy hugged one of the girls abruptly, and she hugged him back and nodded in agreement.

"You're so right Billy, Danny and the twins were far too rough on his first day," she said, hugging Billy closer.

"Yeah, I think so too, Millie," another girl said and somehow weaseled her way into Billy and Millie's hug.

At a glance from Billy, the giant proceeded to the couch and set Peyton gently down on it, then sat next to her. Billy ran up to them and sat on Peyton's other side, the girls began flooding into the empty chairs and squeezed in next to Billy, and for the most part left the giant alone, they did steal glances at him however, and when he looked back at them, they turned pink.

Pretty soon though, some of the girls left Billy's bubbly presence for the three guys exiting the kitchen, looking defeated. Most of them surrounded Danny who immediately came out of his down mood and was as cheesy as ever. The twins grinned and wasted no time pouncing on the opportunity to be their creepy selves.

"Hey Peypey," she turned to the smiling Billy, she hadn't realized that she had been watching the three come out of the kitchen. "Do you want a cookie?" the sweet boy offered.

"No, I better not," she replied and was surprised to see Billy's bottom lip poke out in sadness. "Never mind, I'd love one," and she snatched the cookie and took a big bite, the chocolate chips were gooey and cookie itself was soft and perfect. "I'm glad I changed my mind," and she hummed with pleasure and closed her eyes, it was the best cookie she had ever eaten.

"You want to hold Mister Shnookums?" Billy asked next, holding up a raggedy looking stuffed animal kitty cat, its gray fur, which had once felt as soft as a cloud, was now a bit matted with use, one of its button eyes was missing and it no longer had a mouth, but its black nose was still intact, its head was floppy and so were its legs and tail, its body, which had once been very fat, was now somewhat flattened, but it was still cute, in a morbid sort of way – and was something Peyton absolutely couldn't resist.

She squealed a bit at the sight of the morbidly adorable kitty and snatched it from Billy, cuddling it close, "It's so freaking cute!" she screamed into its face, so her voice was a bit muffled. All the girls still present cooed at how cute Peyton looked holding Mister Shnookums, and Billy stared, completely surprised. Billy looked up at Tommy, a question in his eyes, and Tommy nodded.

"I'm glad you like him!" Billy smiled, back to his normal self.

"Oh," Peyton pulled away from the stuffed cat, and looked at Billy and smiled, embarrassed by her own behavior. "Sorry, I didn't mean to just snatch him away from you like that… that was rude," she hesitantly offered the cat back to Billy, who just stared at her smiling face, shocked into silence again.

He shook his head, smiling, "It's ok Peypey! You can hold him," and she did.

"So, you like stuffed animal's Peyton?" one of the girls asked, and Peyton nodded.

"What else do you like, and are you really going to work here now?" another girl asked.

"I, uh…" she glanced nervously around at the attentive girls. "I like all kinds of stuff," and she laughed nervously, not sure how to proceed. "And yeah, I will be working here…"

"Yeah! He'll be taking the twins' place as barista, it's to help pay for his tuition, I think," Billy smiled and began eating a cookie.

"Oh, so your parents aren't paying your way?" another asked.

"No," Peyton scratched the back of her neck nervously. "I'm really lucky to be here."

"Why do you say that?" asked the same girl.

"Well, if it weren't for the scholarships, there's no way I'd be able to pay for the tuition," she explained, messing with the stuffed kitty's fluffy ears.

"What scholarships do you have Peyton?" asked a different girl.

"Well, I'm on the volleyball team, so I got an athletic scholarship and one for academics," she laughed nervously again, which the girls found very charming.

"The volleyball team?" Billy asked excitedly. "Tommy! We have to go to Peypey's games!"

"Yeah," the giant spoke.

The twins and Danny watched from afar as Peyton was fawned over by the girls for the rest of the café's hours, and Kyle did nothing to upset the peace that had somehow found its way into the café for the afternoon. Everything relaxed, as if the 'initiation test' ordeal had never even happened, and then it was closing time. The members of the café said goodbye to their customers and began cleaning. They swept and mopped and Peyton was assigned to bathroom duty, cups and plates were either thrown away or, if they were china, washed by Billy and Tommy. Peyton and Damien took out the trash.

"So…" Peyton began, and continued when Damien glanced at her. "Is the big guy Tommy or Stanley?"

Damien smirked, "The only one who calls him Tommy is Billy, it's kind of like an unsaid rule with him," when Peyton looked confused, Damien explained further. "Only the people closest to him call him Tommy, unless he gives you the ok, you call him Stan, or Stanley, that's his last name."

"Oh, ok, thanks for telling me," Peyton said and threw the last of the bags in the dumpster.

"No problem, um…" he began and continued when Peyton glanced at him. "I'm sorry about what happened today, you know…" they started walking back to the front of the café. "The three of us fighting over you or whatever, it was really childish, I'm sorry," he stepped in front of Peyton so she stopped and looked up at him; he wasn't so bad when he was alone. "Call it friends?" he offered his hand.

"Yeah," Peyton agreed and took his hand, smiling.

"Cool, let's get back before Jason gets worried or something stupid," he laughed and they continued their walk around the corner of the building, only to be surprised by the flying body of Jason.

"Damien!" he squealed girlishly. "I missed you so hard!"

"Told you," Damien sighed, and the three of them continued into the closing down café.

Billy waved at Peyton as she turned and began running toward the dorms, she had said she had some reading to do before the morning. Billy waited for Tommy to finish locking up then they began the trek up to their dorm rooms together. Neither one spoke at first, they were enjoying the silence of the oncoming evening and the peacefulness of the sunset colors. But silence could only last for so long, and Billy had some questions.

"So, Peyton's a girl?" he began.

"Yeah," Tommy answered.

"Do you think the others know?" Billy looked over at his life-long friend, who gave him a half grin and shook his head. "Should we tell them?" Billy asked.

"Nah," Tommy shoved his hands in his pockets, still grinning.

"That's what I thought too, I want to see what happens," Billy smiled and began skipping.

"Me too," Tommy agreed, not breaking his pace, enjoying the setting suns warmth on his broad back.


	3. Ch3 He Rolls in THAT Direction

3. He Rolls in _that_ Direction

"Woah man! What'd you do? Jump in the pool?" Jason grinned devilishly up at Peyton; he was busy coloring on a poster board that would announce tonight as the official _Opening Night!_

Peyton looked down on him in annoyance, he just got worse on closer acquaintance, probably one of the reasons why she could already tell the twins apart. "My hair isn't that wet," she replied, running her hand through it again.

"Don't pay attention to him," Damien spoke and stuck his tongue out at his brother. "He's just upset because I totally clobbered him today," he got a marker thrown at him for that and Damien laughed. "Oh by the way Peyton, did you hand out all those flyers we gave you?"

"Sure did!" Peyton spoke cheerily as she went behind the counter and started making herself a latte.

"Yeah, yeah he did," Jason snidely remarked. "I saw him giving a flyer to that one kid, with the purple hair? You know Damien?"

"In the gay squad?" Damien asked, watching Peyton not really paying attention.

"Yeah, what's his name? Rafe? Well, you gave one to each of those weirdo's didn't you?" Jason was now asking Peyton.

"So what if I did, this is a public place, and besides, I think just having girl customers is boring," Damien and Jason both looked at each other in confusion at this declaration. Peyton finished making the latte and slapped on its lid.

"What," Jason got up from the floor and strolled over to Peyton. "We're not enough for you?" he trapped her against the counter with his hands firmly planted on either side of her.

"What are you doing?" Peyton scrunched up her face.

"Seducing you, is it working?" Jason watched Damien out of the corner of his eye, and when Damien had taken a big gulp of the latte Peyton had left unobserved on the counter, Jason let her go.

"Dude! That's mine!" Peyton shouted when she noticed that her latte had somehow found its way into Damien's hands, and reached out for her drink.

"Is that pumpkin spice? A little early for that don't you think?" Damien smacked his lips as Peyton snatched the drink from his grasp.

Peyton glared at the twins as she inspected her latte, sniffing it, acting cautious, "Of course not." She said, sticking her tongue out at the devilish twins, and popping the top off the latte and setting it back on the counter. "It's never too early for pumpkin spice," she grabbed the whipped cream bottle and shook it, intending to disinfect the latte with a bit of whipped fat and sugar.

Damien smiled, almost sheepishly, sticking a hand into his pocket, looking off into a not-so-far-off distance and a serene, somehow sad look appeared on his perfect features. "I suppose you're right, after all, pumpkins are magical things," his devilish smirk came back as if he had never lost it. "And it sure is delicious," he said, licking his attractively thin lips, "But," he began to advance towards Peyton, and when he was close her, he placed his elegant fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face up so he could gaze into her sapphire eyes as he uttered: "I bet it would taste even better, spilling from your soft lips."

And in that moment of explicit seduction, Peyton lost control of herself and the whipped cream bottle seemingly erupted, all over Damien's red button down shirt. He looked down at the creamy globs on his shirt and frowned disappointedly, then took a rag and wiped most of it off.

"Nice," Jason commented, laughter in his voice.

"You know," Damien spoke demurely while he examined the dark spots left on his shirt. "It took me hours took pick out this shirt for tonight, this really sucks," he sounded pouty.

"Well, it's your fault," Peyton said, and squirted what was left of the bottle into her latte, the hissing sound making Damien flinch involuntarily.

"Eh, whatever, I'm going to go change," Damien looked over at Jason who was now leaning on the counter, looking mildly bored. "I'll be back in a minute," Damien winked at Jason and left, the bells on the door jingling merrily. Jason watched the door shut and wondered idly why Damien hadn't wanted him to go with him, but then dismissed it and went back to his poster board on the floor. He looked at it, wondering if anyone would notice if he didn't color the rest, decided he didn't want to care what anyone thought, grabbed the board and the tape and went out the door.

Peyton had watched Jason's every move, assuming that he would try making another creepy pass at her, and when he hadn't she was honestly surprised. Then something dawned on her as she sipped her latte, this was the first time she had ever seen one twin without the other, besides that one time when she had taken the trash out with Damien – but that didn't really seem like it should count for much because when she and Damien had turned at the corner of the café's building Jason had jumped, out of nowhere, onto his brother saying that he had missed him and that he couldn't live without him or whatever – they were like a package deal, two halves of one person, they were always together. And Jason wasn't really living up to his creep standards at the moment.

After he had taped up the sign, a little crookedly, on one of the café's windows he strolled back into the café and went straight to the dropdown and started messing with one of the guitars. He didn't even bother to glance at Peyton who had been staring at him ever since he had walked out the door. Jason plucked a few strings then went over to the sound board and started messing around with the nobs, Peyton was curious about whether or not she should ask someone if he was actually supposed to be messing with all that stuff, wondering if maybe he was just trying to pull a prank, which would not be out of character for him, she thought.

Or maybe she was wrong. She got comfy, situating herself on the counter and sipping her latte, waiting to see what Jason would do, and he surprised her. He began playing the guitar he had been fiddling with, and he wasn't bad. Peyton had always supposed that Damien was the more down-to-earth artistically inclined one, simply because he was just so much chiller than Jason was. Damien was friendly and nice and could even be empathetic, Peyton wasn't quite sure Jason was capable of that. But maybe, she thought philosophically, he just put up a strong front, and maybe you just had to work at your friendship with him before he let it down.

"Hey Jason," she called over to him over the sound of the guitar.

"What?" he turned toward her and stopped playing, for the moment, looking mildly annoyed.

Peyton wasn't daunted by that though, whenever they looked annoyed they were usually curious, they just didn't want you to know it. "You want a latte or something?"

"Oh, sure," he played a cord or two.

"What kind?" Peyton called over the guitar again.

"Uh, whatever you have, Damien liked it," Jason turned around again and started playing something bluesy sounding.

"He did?" Peyton asked, but he hadn't heard her, so she started on the latte, wondering when and if Damien had actually said he had liked the latte.

Peyton was just finishing up the latte when the little bell on the door jingled merrily and she looked up to find the rest of the café gang enter the building.

"Ah!" Danny spoke after he had inhaled deeply. "The smell of pumpkin is in the air! I attribute this wonderful aroma to Peyton's handy work!" and he approached the counter as Peyton snapped the lid onto the latte. "Am I right?" he leaned on the counter and smiled up at Peyton.

"Yeah, I've been using pumpkin spice today," Peyton said, not at all matching Danny's dramatic display of fondness, which he found rather disheartening.

"Darling boy," he spoke softly. "Have I in some way, unbeknownst to myself, upset you?"

"No," she spoke in a bored tone she knew the twins would congratulate her on.

"So cold!" Danny swooned. "What has happened to you? Was it Jason?" Danny gasped at his own realization.

"No," Peyton nearly laughed, and began heading for the drop down.

"What are you doing?" Danny spoke as he tried to follow her, but was cut in front of by an overly excited Billy.

"Hey Peypey!" He hopped beside her.

"Hey," Peyton smiled at Billy but kept heading for the dropdown.

"Will you bake cookies with me and Tommy-cat?" he asked. "Maybe you can teach Tommy more about cooking than I can, he always ends up burning something," this he whispered while hopping to get nearer to Peyton's ear.

Peyton couldn't repress a slight giggle. "Sure," she smiled and walked to where Jason now stood by the sound board. "Here you go," she offered the cup.

Jason turned and smiled broadly, which seemed odd, though Peyton couldn't figure out why. "Thanks," he said, took the cup and turned back to the sound board.

Peyton turned and began walking back to the kitchen, but looked back when she thought she had heard something, but Jason was still leaning over the sound board, completely immersed in whatever he was doing. So she kept walking and ran head first into Danny's chest.

"I don't think you should hang around them so much," he spoke to the space above Peyton's head.

"And whys that?" She asked but didn't intend on sticking around for the answer, and headed for the safety of the kitchens, where Danny had been mercilessly banned for being a fire hazard. It seemed to Peyton that Danny had taken it upon himself to be her _guardian_ of sorts, not that he was any good at it, and she didn't particularly believe she needed one anyway.

"Isn't it obvious?" he all but yelled, and followed Peyton, completely unaware of where exactly they were heading. "They are not a good influence on you, plus I firmly believe that they are kin to the devil," and here is where they both entered the kitchen, though no one took notice of Danny at first, that is, until he yelled: "Possibly even the _spawn_ of the Devil!" and flung his arms wide, luckily not knocking anything to the floor, like he had just yesterday, a whole tray of fresh baked cookies ruined.

"Tommy! Get him!" Billy ordered when he spotted the intruder, and Tommy went into action, approaching Danny slowly, his face solemn.

"Oh, no!" Danny began backing up. "This really isn't necessary; I was just talking to Peyton."

"That's what you said yesterday!" Billy crossed his arms.

And finally Tommy lifted Danny off his feet and slung the blond boy over his shoulder and carried him out the door. Billy came to stand in the doorway as Tommy placed Danny back on his feet and awaited his next orders.

"The ban still stands!" Billy spoke almost as dramatically as Danny would have, then motioned for Tommy to follow him back into the kitchen. "Now we can get to work!" Billy was all smiles when he turned to a staring Peyton, who was still not quite used to all the dramatics used in this café.

They started on making the cookies and cupcakes for that day, putting Tommy on stirring duty for Peyton, who had been given a simple recipe from Billy, Billy himself was making his famously delicious, sweet but not too sweet, cupcakes, keeping an eye on his two kitchen wards as he worked. Though he needn't have bothered much, his two little helpers were both the type to finish tasks at hand without giving in to much distraction, plus they both seemed to be comfortable with silence, which Billy found a bit odd considering Peyton was a girl and he thought that all girls got intimidated into blabbing around Tommy. However, Billy didn't dwell on this thought; he became absorbed in his cooking and was as happy as could be.

Out in the sitting room of the café Kyle sat leisurely in the corner loveseat that he had come to favor, as it was far enough from the windows and the café bar so that it wasn't too distracting, making it easier for him to focus on whatever he felt like focusing on at any given time. This seat, however, did give him a very good view of the rest of the café, the various sitting areas and dropdown, he could see partly behind the café bar and whatever might happen to be standing in front of it. The downside of having a seat that had a great view of most all of the aspects of the café was that he also had a great view of a pouting Danny, sitting on the floor just outside that kitchen door, which was exceedingly annoying considering Danny was the only person who could distract Kyle just by being present. So Kyle sighed, shut his notebook he had been doodling in and turned toward the distraught Danny, though did not bother himself with standing.

"Danny," Kyle began when Jason set down his bass and walked over to the sound board, yelling to be heard didn't really suit Kyle. "Is there a reason why you're making yourself unpresentable?" he spoke in the most compassionate voice he could muster, which ended up sounding rather annoyed.

"Our guests won't be here for another hour…" Danny spoke solemnly.

"That doesn't change the fact that you're ruining the mood of the café, whatever it is that has you bothered, deal with it now," Kyle spoke a bit sternly, making Danny puff out his bottom lip in an effort toward making Kyle feel sorry for him, which was absolutely futile.

"I can't, Peyton won't listen to me," he spoke as if he hadn't a hope in the world.

"That shouldn't matter Danny," Kyle calmly replied as he readjusted himself on the couch, resingt his elbow on his knee and his chin on his open palm. "Peyton belongs to the twins and Billy; I specifically assigned our little chick to those of us who are burdened with other chores besides being the apple of our guests' eyes. It shouldn't matter to you what Peyton does or does not do, Danny, I arranged things in this manner so you wouldn't have to worry."

"How can I not worry?" he finally looked Kyle in the eye, his bright blue gaze affronting Kyle's dark orbs. "Everyone in this café matters to me, and with Peyton being a new student here I must do my best to help and protect him from," he glanced at Jason who was now tuning his brother's acoustic. "Bad influences," Kyle smirked at Danny's facial expression, so much for caring about _everyone_.

"With the way things stand, I highly doubt Peyton will take you bad-mouthing the twins all that well…" Kyle's voice drifted off as he opened his notebook.

"Why?" Danny looked confused.

"I believe Peyton considers the twins closer friends than either you or I, simply because our scholarship student spends much more time in the presence of Jason and Damien than with you or I," Kyle spoke rationally.

"He does?" Danny asked, mortified.

"Yes, the three of them are in Class B Sophomores, didn't you know that?" Kyle smiled slyly.

"Yeah… but I didn't really think about it," Danny peeked into the kitchen, catching a glimpse of Peyton laughing at a grinning Stanley, which caught Danny by surprise since Stanley rarely smiled.

"So you see your mistake then?" Kyle asked, hoping Danny would be back to his idiot self in a few moments.

"I guess…" he looked doubtfully up at Kyle, then smiled timidly. "I'll just speak to him about this later!" and he stood up and went over to his beanbags, wondering what he could do to take up time and spruce this sitting area up a bit.

Kyle smiled to himself, knowing that Danny probably hadn't taken in everything he had said, and marked another tally under Danny's name on one of the doodle pages in his notebook. He considered tallying Jason and Damien's names, but couldn't be sure if this would be the day they'd finally figure out Peyton's secret. He had numbered both Stanley's and Billy's names, Stan number one and Billy two, in the order they had found out Peyton's secret femininity. He had thought Billy would be the first to figure it out since he seemed to be deeper and smarter than his character allowed him to appear, but Stanley had found out first, due to a fluke accident caused by none other than the twins.

The bells on the door tinkled as Damien burst into the café, wearing his blue button down shirt, a white V-neck tee peeking underneath the blue. He was holding a white bandana and ran across the café to Jason as if his life depended on reuniting with his twin, who was currently ignoring the rest of the world, playing Damien's acoustic.

"Jason," Damien gripped Jason's chin and tilted his head up. "Stay," Damien said as he walked behind Jason so he could tie the bandana.

"That took you long enough," Jason spoke when Damien came back to the front of his brother to eye his handy work.

"I didn't want to get your hair in the knot," Damien smiled, pleased with the effect, making Jason's jeans and t-shirt look like a whole outfit instead of something his brother had just thrown on without a care in the world, he really needed to work on his fashion sense.

"I meant you were gone for… a while," Jason strummed the guitar. "I tuned everything," he spoke plainly, then stood and put the guitar back on its stand. Jason walked over to the sound board and hooked his iPod up to it, and shuffled through the list of playlists until he got to the one labeled _opening night_, which he had finished compiling the night before.

Damien stood behind his brother, knowing Jason was probably nervous, he always was right before a performance, then noticed a coffee cup sitting on the speaker next to the sound board. "Hey, this yours?" he asked Jason, hoping to take his brother's mind off music for a moment.

"Yeah, Peyton made it for me, you can have it," Jason pressed play and adjusted the volume of the speakers, as Damien took a sip.

"It's just like his?" Damien asked.

"Yeah, you liked it, I thought I'd try it," Jason straightened and cracked his neck, and Damien just nodded.

"You're nervous," Damien said, just to get it out in the open.

"Yeah," Jason admitted and huffed a breath. "Why the hell did he have to go and invite Rafe?" he asked the ceiling.

"Come on," Damien reassured. "Maybe he won't show, who knows, and we're good, so if he does show, it won't matter."

"No, it will matter, everything about this matters," Jason ran his fingers through his hair, nearly messing up Damien's perfectly tied bandana.

"Oh come on," Damien took his twin's hand and pulled him toward the kitchen, knowing Peyton would be in there and at least one of Billy's culinary concoctions would be almost done, and wondering if, perhaps, cookies and Peyton could cure Jason's nervousness.

They entered the kitchen and immediately were assaulted by the aroma of chocolate, making their mouths water expectantly. Billy was leaning over peeking into the hot oven, and Peyton and Stanley were situated next to a big bowl and two cookie sheets, both of them licking cookie dough off a couple spoons, both smiling as if something amusing had just been said. The twins stood just inside the doorway, observing, Damien wondering just how Peyton had managed to get the big man to smile, and Jason wondering what kind of chocolate delight Billy was now poking a toothpick in. They split, not letting go of the others hand until it was absolutely necessary.

Jason ambled over to Billy and leaned down next to the shorter boy, gazing into the oven with nothing but hungry lust written all over his angelic face. Two trays of perfect chocolate cupcakes greeted Jason's hungry eyes, perfect rounded mounds of tantalizing taste and texture. Jason hummed deep in his throat, scaring Billy so that he jerked his hand out of the oven and let the oven door slam shut.

"Oh," Billy sighed. "Jasey, I thought you were Danny…"

"Those look amazing Billy! What are they?" Jason was beaming with delight.

"They're my Bitter-sweet Chocolate Tasty Cupcakes!" Billy placed his hands on his hips and smiled broadly.

"May I please have one when they're done? Please?" Jason was all but begging on his knees.

"Of course! But only if you help me make the icing," Billy grinned, and was happy to see Jason stick out his tongue in mild disgust, if Billy had asked Damien, there wouldn't be any icing for the cupcakes, he'd eat it all.

"Ok, as long as I get a cupcake without the icing stuff," Jason stood.

"You got it!" and Billy began dashing about the room collecting what he needed.

Meanwhile, Damien had been chatting with Peyton about the cookies she and the big man had been working on, then had slyly changed the subject to what exactly had possessed her to invite Rafe and his gang to _Opening Night! _

"You mean to say you had absolutely no idea that Rafe and his group of guys are actually the most popular band on campus?" Damien was shocked.

"No, I didn't," Peyton admitted. "I didn't even know his name till I gave him a flier."

Damien's jaw dropped and he looked over to where Jason and Billy were stirring together a fluffy chocolate mixture, oblivious, "Then why the heck did you invite them?"

"I don't know, they were just sitting against the wall in the front and they looked bored," she looked up at Damien and could tell he wasn't going to buy that lame excuse. "And I thought the café could use some guy customers," still not enough for Damien. "And I thought they were hot," he looked startled, and so did Jason who had started listening not long before that proclamation.

Damien leaned back and crossed his arms, "Wow, you know," he began. "I really didn't think you were gay… not that I'm against it or anything." Damien's eyes roved over Peyton in a vulgar display, making Peyton blush profusely.

"So," Jason had slunk up behind Damien and now had his arm around his brother's shoulders. "Does this mean that Rafe is your type?" he smiled creepily.

"Well just so you know," Damien grinned wickedly. "He rolls in that direction as well, but…" here he looked at is brother.

"He seems to have some sort of fondness towards me," Kyle spoke from the doorway of the kitchen, his notebook in one hand, a pen cradled in the other. "Which I find particularly awkward, since I don't feel the same way," he admitted with ease.


	4. Ch4 Newest Attraction

4. Newest Attraction

The main room of the café was crowded with regular customers and with many new faces, including a group of seemingly out of place punk looking guys. Many of the tables and seats had been moved to the kitchen or nearer to the bar in order for the customers to have room to dance or simply stand nearer to the drop down. And that space was rather crowded, although, at the moment, quite a large amount of girls had flocked around the table where Rafe and his group of friends were seated around a corner table, trying to keep a low profile. However, that didn't seem to be working out so well for them, especially since the entire staff of the café were spying on them from the cracked doorway of the kitchen, not at all interested in entertaining their guests at the moment.

Jason was the first to step away from the door, he had been surprisingly well mannered after Billy had consented to giving him a cookie and a cupcake with no icing, but now he plopped flat onto the kitchen floor, groaning. "I can't do it…" he mumbled to the ceiling.

Damien on the other hand was still spying out the door, trying to gauge just how unimpressed Rafe really was, he knew Rafe put up a disdainful front in order to frighten girls away from him, but that didn't seem to be working tonight. Probably, Damien figured, because the _concert chicks_ were present, and they tended to be braver and more brazen than the café's regular _good girl_ customers.

"Maybe we should start early? They look pretty annoyed," Damien reasoned.

"No, you will perform on schedule, we've discussed this," Kyle turned away from the door and shoved his glasses back up his nose. "You all know that you should be entertaining our guests at this moment, rather than spying on them," he crossed his arms.

"I can't do it…" Jason mumbled again, flinging his arms wide on the floor.

"I don't see why we should do something you clearly have no intention of doing yourself," Damien retorted as he turned away from the door, adjusting his shirt, and, looking down, noticing his twin was currently making a fool of himself. "Jason, you're going to get your shirt dirty…" though it didn't really matter since it was one of his brother's older, rattier t-shirts. Damien didn't know why he still had it. He huffed a sigh and went over and tried to get Jason back on his feet.

"They are rather intimidating aren't they?" Danny still had his face shoved up against the door.

"Don't worry! Tomcat and I can put them in place if they misbehave!" Billy rolled the short sleeves of his blue pinstriped button-up, effectively making himself look a bit on the _wannabe tough guy_ side of things.

"Don't be a meanie! Girls need nurturing and kindness in order to change! Not forcefulness stuff!" Danny stood abruptly from his bent position and waved a fist comically at Billy.

"Girls?" Stanley said blankly, leaning against the wall, he was the only one not at all paying attention to the happenings past the door, completely unconcerned with whatever had everyone else's panties in a wad.

"You were talking about the 'Concert chicks'?" Billy asked, now curious, bravado dissipating instantly.

"Of course! We don't usually associate with them, but tonight is our chance to capture their hearts and become their healing balm! Their kind and generous saviors! The caretakers of their trashed souls!" his proclamations continued, and his gestures became more and more exaggerated and dramatic, which was just his way.

"I don't actually think that there's anything wrong with them," Peyton still stared out the doorway, convinced that Rafe was most definitely the hottest guy she had ever seen and was loath to let her eyes move away from his pensive face. "You should be an actor Danny…" Peyton spoke, hoping to get his mind off the idea that he could be a savior of any kind to anyone.

"Really?" Danny was completely surprised by the fact that Peyton hadn't criticized him, and that caused his cheeks to grow warm.

"Mhm," Peyton didn't feel like explaining the obvious reasons for that random idea that had entered her head. "Crap…" Peyton whispered when she noticed the line forming in front of the café bar. "I had better get to work…" she spoke as she began pushing the door open a little further.

"Wait!" Jason leapt away from his brother's less than helpful tugging and lunged for the doorknob, pulling it almost completely shut. "What's wrong with you? If one of us goes out there, we all have to!"

"There's a line forming," Peyton pointed and spoke rationally, the blank expression on her face making Stanley chuckle, which made the twins and Danny jump in surprise.

"But…" Jason's hand fell away from the doorknob and he turned slowly, his head hanging.

And this is the moment when Danny's father like nature took complete control. He placed a hand on either of Jason's shoulders and leaned down so he could look up into Jason's downcast eyes.

"Jason, I know that in reality you are the spawn of the devil and a demon at heart, but," here Danny paused and took a breath. "All of us know that your talent as a musician is astounding," and here Jason met the caring blue eyes of his boss. "And we are counting on you to make this night one to remember. After all," Danny grinned. "This is the first Friday night of the school year," and as if that had some special meaning, Jason grinned as well, his amber eyes lighting with mischief.

"Roger that!" Jason saluted Danny who now stood in a soldier's stance.

"Roger!" Damien sidled next to Jason and saluted at well.

The twins turned in unison and exited the kitchen, flinging the door to the side, the bang of it against the wall causing the crowded room to fall suddenly silent. They stood side by side, looking at the crowd as if they owned it, their stances both strong and seductive. Danny and Kyle entered the room next, as if on cue and stood a bit off to the side of the twins, Kyle adjusted his glasses then crossed his arms and Danny made a show of running his fingers through his lush hair. Billy rushed in and feinted a fall, but quickly turned it into a hand spring and landed before the twins, his stance wide and strong.

Peyton still peeked from the doorway, completely confused and somewhat alarmed by the performance her coworkers and employers were putting on, and hadn't the slightest idea of what she was supposed to do in this situation. There was a light tap on her shoulder, and she turned to find Stanley looking down on her, a ghost of a smile on his gentle lips.

"Let's go," was all he said and walked out the door, Peyton fled the kitchen after him and stood beside him silently when he took a stance next to Danny.

"Welcome!" they all spoke in unison, excluding Peyton who still hadn't a clue about what was going on, and Stanley who never participated in this sort of thing, figuring it really wasn't necessary. "To our Café's Opening Night!" and then they dispersed, approaching groups of guests that they recognized. Peyton retreated to the bar, which she hadn't realized felt so homey and safe till now. She knew none of the faces standing before her, neither were they previous customers, that she could remember, or from class. There were five of them, most of which were extremely tan, one was more pink than tan, and all of them wore shirts that fully exposed their curves and maybe a bit more of their breasts than what was necessary.

The one standing right in front of the bar – the others stood a bit further back whispering to each other – wore a pair of stylishly raggedy jeans, and a tank top that was just short enough to suggest that her tummy was just as tan as the rest of her, her shoulder blade length bleached out strawberry blonde hair helped hide the fact that a lacey bit of her bra peeked out of the tank top. Her whole style suggested that she was apparently the easy type of girl, and the confident way she stood and perplexed way she wrinkled her brow and bit her bottom lip somehow made Peyton feel very inferior to her.

The girl crossed her arms, huffed, and puckered her lips, obviously having trouble deciding what she wanted… or, Peyton considered, she was having trouble deciphering what exactly the menu meant, seeing as the menu catered to the regular customers and their friends who they invited.

"Uh," Peyton was a bit unsure, but when the girl looked to her in utter surprise, Peyton decided to continue. "Are you in need of some help? I'd be happy to explain anything that doesn't make sense; I've been telling the guys that the menu really does need rethinking…" Peyton smiled shyly.

The girl gave Peyton a once over, her hazel eyes somehow taking on a brighter green shade as she scrutinized Peyton's appearance. "They let someone like you work here?" something in her tone making Peyton take a step back.

"Um, yeah…" Peyton didn't try explaining.

"Huh," the girl put her hands on her hips. "That's weird, the rest of them are all big-headed jocks," she flipped her hair and smiled. "Overly confident, arrogant, pretty boys," she spoke knowingly. "Stereotypical rich brats, don't you think?" though it didn't really seem like she wanted an answer. "And yeah, I really can't understand this menu at all, I mean, what the heck is a_ Love Potion_? Or a _Maiden's Wildest Dream, with extra Dream_? Can't you just say latte or something?" she guffawed and turned her eyes back to Peyton expectantly, though Peyton had no idea what this girl expected.

Peyton sighed, already feeling tired, "I'm not even going to try to explain that thing, you've been to regular cafés and coffee shops before right?"

"Well, yeah, they're pretty common," the girl retorted and laughed a bit.

"Ok, then just ask for something and I can hopefully make it pretty close," Peyton tentatively smiled. "And may I recommend," she spoke professionally again. "A cooler drink, seeing as it's very crowded tonight and a cold drink will complement the cool summer breeze coming in through the windows," and she smiled, just how Damien had instructed.

The girl burst out laughing, and leaned on the counter, the girls behind her looking very confused and completely surprised by their friend's behavior. "I'm sorry," the girl spoke in between giggles. "That was just so… don't force a smile like that again!" she breathed in deeply and straightened herself. "You're cute," she said blatantly. "I'm Conner," she held out her hand, and Peyton took it.

"Peyton," she replied, and then let go of Conner's hand. "Your order?"

"Hmmm… can you do a cherry cream soda?" Conner asked.

"Cherry a le crème coming your way!" Peyton turned to her counter of ingredients and got started. "For here, right?"

"Yep," Conner turned to her friends, and Peyton assumed that she was explaining what to do about ordering to them.

Peyton finished off the drink by slipping in the straw and plopping the cherry on top. She set the red drink on the counter and watched Conner look at it in puzzlement; she leaned down to get a better look, then straightened and furrowed her brow.

"What the heck is this?" she snarled, and Peyton was about to reply but was promptly cut off. "Do you expect me to drink something so freaking cute!?" Conner's cheeks blazed pink. "How much does this thing cost anyhow? Half a fortune?" she leaned over the counter and Peyton stepped back.

"Every drink tonight is just a dollar, but crème sodas never cost more than 1.75," Peyton quickly reported the facts, and wondered if Jason had forgotten to put that on the poster board like Kyle had ordered.

"Oh," Conner looked down at the drink again. "In that case… may I have another cherry," she smiled, her cheeks still pink.

Peyton smiled as well, "Of course."

The rest of the orders went without much of a hitch, that is, until the twins decided to come and check on their little barista, to make sure he was doing ok of course, since this was the first time they had left him alone to his work without their constant supervision. They slunk up on either side of their target and leaned down so that they were both looking over one of their little barista's shoulders at whatever was being made, which they didn't care about in the least. Peyton, of course, ignored them the best she could and finished up the drink.

"Excuse me," she spoke without emotion and turned completely around and walked through the gap between the twins.

They followed close behind her, grinning at each other. Damien leaned against the courter next to Peyton and Jason took his place leaning on Damien; both of them never took their golden eyes off their prey. They watched as Peyton handed one of the tan girls her drink and listened as another one of the girls asked about something on the board and Peyton explained. When Peyton turned again, the boys pounced.

"Peyton, come on, we just came to see how you were doing," Damien spoke genuinely, which made Peyton wonder just how good at lying he was.

"Yeah, we thought you might want to wish us luck," Jason grinned wickedly and winked.

"You guys are making it hard for me to do my job, please go bother someone else," Peyton spoke coldly.

"Ah, Peyton," Damien came up beside Peyton and slung an arm around her shoulders. "You don't mean that."

Jason leaned down on the counter where Peyton was currently attempting to measure some syrup for a drink, and looked up into her downcast eyes, "Of course he doesn't. We both know he enjoys us, perhaps a bit too much."

Peyton's face betrayed her by flushing a soft pink, and the fact that Jason was now cradling one of her cheeks in his callused hand didn't help her regain control of the heat racing up her neck. She was about to smack Jason when Damien caught her hand and twined his fingers skillfully with hers. Jason smiled snidely and ran his fingers down Peyton's neck, causing unwelcome goose-bumps to rise on her flushed skin, she was very tempted to pour the bottle of caramel flavored syrup on Jason's head, but managed to keep herself under enough control to not commit such a crime which would more than likely lead to more debt.

Luckily for Peyton, Conner had been watching the whole scenario, waiting for the two ruffians to stop what they were doing so she wouldn't feel compelled to step in and stop them herself, in a less than ladylike way. To Conner, these two evil boys seemed little more than bullies, and she hardly had any patience for such people. So in the end, as the twins had no intention of letting Peyton off easy, Conner was forced to intervene. She snaked two fingers into her cherry red drink and aimed the fished out ice cube at Jason's eye, but missed the mark by a smidge.

Now Jason, who was, at times, perhaps a little too fond of playing up situations, glanced down at the pink ice cube, that had ended its flying journey by plopping onto the counter, and abruptly crumpled onto the floor and clung to one of Peyton's legs, which he found was surprisingly smooth, instead of covered in hair like a normal dude's leg might be. "Damien quick! The missiles have been launched! Take cover!" Jason called to his twin who quickly hid behind Peyton's back, clinging to her shoulders, eliciting a flinch from his shield.

"Aren't you two the ones who are supposed to be performing?" Conner asked, and Peyton nodded, Damien assisting the whole nodding bit by grabbing the top of Peyton's head and pushing her head forward and pulling it back. "Then shouldn't you be letting Peyton do his job while you hurry up and do yours? Curfew is only extended for so long on Friday nights you know…" Conner put one hand on her hip while the other was occupied, holding her soda.

"We just wanted Peyton to wish us luck," Damien bravely stood up from behind Peyton, and Jason sighed and did the same. "After all…"

"He is our personal slave for the remainder of his high school experience," Jason drawled, finishing his brother's obvious thought.

"Aren't you both being a bit possessive? Peyton is a guy you know," Conner squinted at the twins in disgust.

"What are you saying?" Jason asked, though didn't wish to receive an answer.

"You have something against same sex attraction?" Damien asked, taking Peyton's chin between his index finger and thumb.

"This is hardly necessary you guys…" Peyton growled.

"Jason, do you suppose that this delicate young lady will be upset if we reveal the 'secret' about our barista?" Damien asked of his twin, trying without avail to tilt Peyton's face toward his own.

"Shall we say that our Peyton isn't interested in –," but before Jason could finish his proclamation, Kyle appeared and grabbed both twins by their hair.

"I don't know what the two of you are planning, nor do I care, but I need Peyton so please take yourselves to the stage and make ready, you have two minutes," Kyle shoved the two rascals toward the direction of the stage then noticed the flushing Peyton and the angry face of Conner, one of the girls on the swim team, if he remembered correctly. "Conner Autumn, I presume," Kyle addressed the girl who was still fuming.

"Yes, and you're the headmaster's son," Conner spoke saucily.

"Yes, Kyle Price, please excuse the twins' behavior, they seem to become a bit more mischievous before performances," Kyle turned to Peyton. "Peyton, would you please take the orders of those sitting at tables?" Kyle asked, though it was more command than question.

"Yeah, sure," Peyton had regained her natural color.

"And linger with Rafe's table please, I'm counting on you to… keep them company," Kyle cleared his throat when he spoke this line, and Peyton suspected it had something to do with the fact that he had no desire to allow Rafe to get friendly with himself. "Weren't you the one who suggested that having male customers would be a nice change of pace?" and with that he turned and went to confront the twins about their previous behavior.

"So," Peyton had forgotten all about Conner, and jumped when she spoke. "You're gay?"

"It would seem so…" Peyton rolled her eyes and quickly finished the drink that had been so delayed. "Sorry about the wait," she spoke to the last of the tan girls as she handed her drink over the counter then wiped up the small mess she had managed to make. After a moment's hesitation, she retrieved a small notepad and pen and walked from behind the counter into the throng only to run straight into Conner.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I wasn't watching where I was going," Peyton managed a strangled laugh, wondering what this girl was up to.

"Hm," she puckered her lips. "You are the only nice one."

Peyton was a bit taken aback by that, and couldn't think of a thing to say.

"Well, if you ever have a moment's free time, come find me," she smiled sincerely and walked off with her friends to find a place to sit.

Peyton watched her walk away, still wondering what that encounter had even meant, if anything, then shook it off and headed for the table that was occupied by Rafe and his group of guys. She took deep breaths as she approached, not sure why she was so nervous, they had been very nice when she had invited them to this crazy opening night, she had no reason to be nervous.

"Good evening," she spoke, hoping she sounded cheerful. "May I get your orders before the music starts?"

All of the guys at the table looked in her direction with little more than disgust written all over their faces. They stared at her for a moment then Rafe smiled lazily, and Peyton was able to breathe again.

"Sure, um, I'll just have an iced mocha," he grinned as Peyton wrote.

She was just writing the final order when Jason and Damien finally began to play, opening with a highly professional "is this thing on?" from Damien, and Peyton could just imagine Jason rolling his eyes at such idiocy. The crowded area of the café seemed to erupt, all the gathered girls surging from their seats to crowd around the dropdown. Peyton wondered why there was a dropdown instead of a stage, but figured it was one of Kyle's grand schemes that no one else would ever figure out, he seemed to have quite a few of those.

A moment later, Peyton was behind her counter again, filling the orders she had scribbled on her little notepad, forgetting that there was anything else going on besides the frothing of milk and the gurgle of the espresso machine, the soft clinking of ice and the stickiness of the many flavors. After a short time of losing herself in her work, she placed the last of the five orders on the tray, ready to traverse the sea of swooning girls.

Or so she thought, the trouble with a sea of swooning girls, Peyton soon found out, is that they're completely unpredictable in their movements and will as soon as take your head off before noticing your presence. Balancing a tray of drinks and trying to dodge the flailing movements of the girls was about the most difficult thing Peyton had ever attempted, and she wasn't sure she'd actually make it to her goal.

Just as an elbow was strategically pounded onto Peyton's shoulder, making the tray wobble precariously and Peyton wince in pain, the tray began to float away. Peyton reached out for it, but a large, strong hand gently grabbed her wrist, stopping her. Stanley smiled down on her, amusement dancing in his dark chocolate eyes. He dragged her along, though not roughly, to Rafe's table, all five of the emo-looking boys looking somewhat impatient and uncomfortable.

Then the first song ended and Jason began talking, about what, Peyton wasn't sure, she was too busy being entranced by Rafe's purple tinted eyes. The same purple color shone when the light hit his black styled hair just right. There was a slight nudge against the toe of her converse from Stan, and she realized she had just been staring.

"Erm…" she cleared her throat and heard one of the boys chuckle, and she looked up to find Rafe smiling at her, one of his buddies playfully punching his arm. "Sorry that took a while," she looked to Stanley who set the tray down on the table. "Your iced mocha," she handed Rafe his drink, his fingers just brushing hers as he took the cup, a grin forming on his lips.

Peyton quickly distributed the other drinks and was about to turn and leave before the next song started, Stanley had left as soon as his task of setting the tray down was finished and without him standing over her she felt quite exposed. Before she could, however, Rafe stood and blocked her way.

"Wait," he spoke, a smile playing in the depths of his eyes. "You are the one who invited us to this, right?" he asked, and Peyton felt a pang in her stomach, the fact that he had so soon forgotten her was a bit upsetting.

"Yeah, that was me," she scratched the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"So you're Peyton?" he smiled.

"Yeah," she wondered idly if she really looked so different from when she wore the boys uniform she'd found in the lost and found basket in the main building. It was true that it was pretty worn and not her size at all, but did she really look so different?

"Ok, I was wondering," he laughed a bit. "Can you sit with us? Or do you have to work?" he asked, and Peyton glanced back at the café bar. She supposed she could just keep an eye on it, after all, Kyle had said she needed to entertain Rafe and his gaggle of friends.

"Yeah, I can sit," she smiled. "I'll just keep an eye on bar; if anyone comes up I'll have to get to work."

"Sure, have a seat," Rafe indicated a seat next to his own, and Peyton took it.

"So why did you invite us in the first place?" one of the boys asked, his hair was bleached almost completely white and stuck up and out all over the place, a dark blue bandana was tied at the back of his head, bangs stuck out underneath it in front, creating a jagged almost white line across his dark tan forehead. His eyebrows, Peyton noted, were a light brown and his eye-lashes nearly black, his eyes a shade of dark brown, almost black.

Peyton decided to be honest, she figured if she tried lying everything would just go downhill, "Well, I get tired of just serving girls, and you all looked like the type who would go to concerts and stuff like that, so I just decided to give it a shot and see if you'd come."

"So you have no idea who we are?" this guy had his eyes lined in black and his hair was long, black and straight as a piece of paper, about as thin. His light hazel eyes were kind though, even if they were surrounded by black stuff, and even if his clothes sported chains and safety pins.

"Honestly, I didn't, until Jason freaked out," they shared looks at each other, smirking and chuckling. "He said you guys are in a popular band here on campus?" Peyton spoke, squinting in question.

"Yeah," Rafe spoke now, leaning back in his chair, his knee bumping up against Peyton's leg. "We're Keine Ahnung!, that's German for 'no idea' or 'no clue,'" he smiled. "And yeah, we're pretty popular here on campus, but we have been sense our freshman year. I'm surprised you haven't heard of us," he inclined his head; clearly wanting to know why his fame had skipped Peyton's noticed.

She could feel a blush creeping up her neck, "Well, I just started here."

"Oh, so you're a newbie," the boy with dreads and a lip piercing spoke around the straw he was chewing on.

"Yeah," Peyton breathed a sigh of relief, though she wasn't sure why.

"Ok, ok," the boy on the other side of Peyton spoke up, crossing his arms and tilting his head, his bright red Mohawk just slightly swishing, the many hoops in his ear and the lonely hoop hanging from his nose catching the light. "I'm tired of this beating around the bush, are you gay?" he asked blatantly.

Rafe shifted slightly beside Peyton, turning to look at her, probably to gauge how truthful her answer was.


End file.
